The expression "to play the gooseberry" or as it's more commonly expressed these days "I felt like such a gooseberry" comes from Victorian times when all meetings of two young members of the opposite sex who were mutually attracted to each other (I think it was considered too risqué to call them 'dates') had to be supervised by a Chaperon to make sure that no-one did anything vaguely lustful, like hold hands without gloves on or make polite comments about each other's footwear. Anyway, if the Chaperon was feeling a tad licentious they'd say something along the lines of "Gosh, Is that a patch of gooseberries I see yonder? I may just wander over there out of eye sight and try and pick some" (I've been unable to ascertain whether this was accompanied by an excessive wink and a nudge on the part of the chaperon, but seeing as it's practically law to do such things when being licentious I'm going to say that it happened and everyone was all the more grateful for it). Needless to say the couple would recognise this as the sign that they could spend time alone together as long as they kept up the picking gooseberries illusion and kept within certain boundaries of respectability. And didn't make it too obvious that one of them had their fingers in the wrong holes of the glove when the chaperon came back.
(book) The Sinfulness of Sin (Puritan writings on sin, +100 reformed points for me!)
(t) Helen
What you need Kerron, is a woman!
I suggest:
BULLET POINT Stopping your website posting
BULLET POINT starting some talking to single girlies. BULLET POINT Wear old spice
I tell you the truth, that book's title wins the certificate of redundancy certificate.
Well I do wear Old Spice (for Old Men) - so I'm a third of the way there! :-)
With my new found knowledge about gooseberries, it can only be a matter of time. :-)
Fingers crossed!
What would John Calvin's snow art look like, do you thing? Go on, someone artistic, have a crack at it...
Didn't he team up with Dave Klein to make a clothing range?
I think you'll find Calvin wasn't called by God to make Snow Men.
Predestination Joke = +3 reformed points.
Heh heh heh... Nice.
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Kerron
Genuinely fascinating.
I will drag this into conversation the next time I am being a gooseberry and seem very knowledgable indeed!
:-)
But still very single. :-(